Time To Stop Throwing The Baby Out With The Bath Water

I posted a photo of Mahatma Gandhi dancing. Someone commented that he slept naked with young girls so “He’s not my role model.” This is emblematic of what is going on today. Throwing the baby out with the bath water. If we identify a bad behavior in someone, we don’t simply point it out and ask them to take responsibility for it, we also totally demonize them, negate any positive contribution to society that they made, and focus on that one bad act as the sum total of who they are as a human being. This is wrong. Gandhi in many ways is an excellent role model. Obviously, not when it comes to sleeping in bed naked with young girls. But if we’re willing to put our rage and harsh judgment aside we might see there is great value in examining the sum total of his life, there is much to learn and grow from. And this tends to be true for most of the people we demonize and attack ferociously on a daily basis.